The Unjustifiable Firing Of Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge

Main Category: HIV / AIDS
Article Date: 17 Aug 2007 - 1:00 PDT

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Last week's firing of South Africa's Deputy Minister of Health, Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge, by President Thabo Mbeki has outraged clinicians and groups representing people with HIV/AIDS, such as Treatment Action Campaign. Madlala-Routledge was the main driving force behind the ambitious 5-year plan to roll out antiretroviral therapy. Many fear that the fight against the HIV/AIDS epidemic in South Africa could now be set back decades.

The official reason for the firing of Madlala-Routledge is that she travelled to a meeting in Madrid without the President's permission. Suggestions of impropriety were also leaked to the press. However, in a press conference on Aug 10, Madlala-Routledge stated her version of events which clashed with that of the President. It is widely thought that Mbeki has been looking for an excuse to dismiss Madlala-Routledge. Her work challenged his early assertions that HIV/AIDS did not exist and also contrasted with the unscientific activities of Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang that promote certain foods as treatment of HIV/AIDS.

There are many injustices about the firing of Madlala- Routledge. The most concerning is that in a country where over 1000 people die every day from HIV/AIDS, Mbeki has put a question mark over his government's commitment to the AIDS treatment plan that Madlala- Routledge drove through, thus potentially denying the right to life for a large proportion of the population.

The first clause of the Freedom Charter, still central to African National Congress policy, states the belief that "South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white, and that no government can justly claim authority unless it is based on the will of all the people." Given the public outcry about the firing of this much respected deputy health minister, and the possibility that this act could signal the government's back-tracking on a national AIDS treatment strategy, it is questionable whether President Mbeki is acting according to the will of the people. And in the unacceptable silence from organisations, such as WHO, it looks like it will be up to the citizens of South Africa to once again ensure that their collective and powerful voice is heard.

The Lancet

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